Russian Federation banned from 2018 Winter Olympics over doping

05/12/2017

The last nation to earn a ban from the Winter Olympics was South Africe.

Bach also said the Russian committee must give the IOC $15 million to pay for the doping investigation.

Bobsledder Alexei Voyevod, who was last month stripped of the two gold medals he won at the Sochi Olympics, said he would be "proud" of any Russian athletes who boycott the games. Those with histories of rigorous drug testing may petition for permission to compete in neutral uniforms. The Games will be held February 9-25.

"We won't apologize", Pyotr Tolstoy, a leading member of the Russian State Duma, Russia's lower house of legislature, said in remarks broadcast on Channel One, a state-funded television station.

IOC President Thomas Bach called the situation "an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport". "Secondly, I don't see any reason for a boycott by the Russian athletes because we allow the clean athletes there to participate".

Those athletes will be designated as "Olympic Athletes from Russian Federation", and wear a uniform with that designation.

"We intend to defend the interests of our athletes, of the Russian Federation, to remain committed to the ideals of Olympism and preserve all ties with the International Olympic Committee, and through these ties the problems that have arisen will be resolved", Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

The document also features measures relating to allocating more funding to test Paralympic athletes, create agreements with whistleblowers to give them legal protection in exchange for helping investigations and preventing those who break anti-doping rules from holding state or non-state posts in physical culture and sports.

Any Russian athlete hoping to earn invitations to Pyeongchang will have to come through a stricter-than-usual testing regime and not have a doping violation on their record.

The invitation list will be decided upon by a panel led by the Chair of the Independent Testing Authority (ITA), Velerie Fourneyron, but it will be the International Olympic Committee who ultimately decides who gets to compete in PyeongChang.

The IOC has not in the past imposed a total ban for doping, instead passing the decision on individual athletes to the global federations governing each individual sport.

But athletes' blood and urine samples have been subjected to more analysis since the Sochi games, and in recent weeks, the International Olympic Committee has been slicing into Russia's medal count, disqualifying athletes from the Russian biathlon, bobsleigh, and cross-country skiing teams who were found to have broken anti-doping Rules. It blames Rodchenkov as a rogue employee, and wants the scientist extradited from the United States, where he is a protected witness.

"This should draw a line under this damaging episode and serve as a catalyst for a more effective anti-doping system led by WADA", he added, referring to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The IOC's executive board reached the decision after receiving a report from a commission chaired by Samuel Schmid which confirmed "the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russian Federation".

Twenty-eight Russians competing in Sochi are implicated in cheating by McLaren. One Russian was cleared. They've taken away 11 of Russia's 33 medals.